Arik Air Adds Links to Ibadan

Posted 22/09/2011

Independent Nigerian carrier Arik Air has inaugurated flights between the country’s federal capital Abuja and Ibadan, the largest city in the Oyo State metropolitan area and the most populous city in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa up until the 1970s.  The airline launched the four times weekly service on September 19, using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400.

Ibadan is located in south-western Nigeria and is a prominent transit point between the coastal region and areas to the north.  Ibadan had been the centre of administration of the old Western Region since the days of the British colonial rule, and parts of the city's ancient protective walls still stand to this day.   It is already linked to Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by Overland Airways, with an estimated 4,000 O&D passengers making the journey in the past year. 

“By linking Ibadan with Abuja, Arik Air offers air travellers more convenient connections between Ibadan and Abuja than what was previously offered with many travellers having to utilise the ever- busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway,” explained Chris Ndulue, Managing Director, Arik Air.  “The Ibadan Airport has remained underserviced in spite of the fact that it is located in the third largest city in Nigeria by population and the largest in geographical area.  We owe it a duty as a truly Nigerian airline to help in the infrastructural development of the country.  This explains our resolve to connect all airports across the country”

During the second half of this year Arik Air has been on a mission to enhance domestic connectivity within Nigeria.  The carrier has recently opened new Lagos - Asaba and Abuja - Asaba routes and more domestic and international routes are set to be launched.  In fact, we can reveal that Arik Air will shortly announce details of a partnership with Routesonline to use its Route Exchange online trading platform for a proposed network expansion into Europe.  The formal Request for Proposals (RFP) is due to be launched at World Routes in Berlin on the afternoon of October 3. 

---

With effect from March 19, 2012 the Breaking News coverage on Routesonline is powered by Airline Route.  For more analysis on these stories please read our expanded coverage of the key stories of the day in The HUB. 

You can also keep up to date with the latest network development news by following the live updates from @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @RouteExchange and @airlineroute on Twitter.  While all the latest news from our events can be seen by searching the #RoutesAfrica, #RoutesAmericas, #RoutesAsia, #RoutesCIS, #RoutesEurope and #WorldRoutes hashtags.

All material is copyright of UBM Aviation Routes but the views expressed are not necessarily the views of UBM Aviation Routes and the company shall therefore not be liable for the contents of any article that appears on the site.  Although the best efforts have been taken in collecting and checking the material we can not and do not warrant that the information contained in this product is complete or accurate and does not assume and hereby disclaims liability to any person for any loss of damage caused by errors or omissions.

PLEASE NOTE: From March 7, 2012 schedule data for all news stories has been extracted from OAG Schedules iNET; All GDS data is based on a live GDS update on the day of publication; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending December 2011.  All information is subject to change.